Saturday, 10 November 2012

Tune Out, Turn Off: Disengage or Engage

There is a consistently-reported high level of disengagement
linked to leadership in the workplace that manufactures both passively and
actively-disengaged people. The level of disengagement is often quoted at up to
a staggering 80% of the workforce[i].
But this problem is not restricted to the UK or USA it is a worldwide
phenomenon. Leadership is routinely stated as one of the major sources of disengagement.
A quick look at Gallup’s 12 Questions on
engagement show how most questions can be directly or indirectly related to
leadership.

Since 1997 the Gallup Organization has surveyed
approximately 3 million employees in three hundred thousand work units within
corporations. This survey consists of 12 questions which measure employee
engagement on a five-point scale indicating weak to strong agreement. Analyses
of survey results show that those companies with high Q12 scores experience
lower turnover, higher sales growth, better productivity, better customer
loyalty and other manifestations of superior performance.

Q1. Do you know what is expected
of you at work?

Q2. Do you have the materials and
equipment you need to do your work right?

Q3. At work, do you have the
opportunity to do what you do best every day?

Q4. In the last seven days, have
you received recognition or praise for doing good work?

Q5. Does your supervisor, or
someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?

Q6. Is there someone at work who
encourages your development?

Q7. At work, do your opinions
seem to count?

Q8. Does the mission/purpose of
your company make you feel your job is important?

Q11. In the last six months, has
someone at work talked to you about your progress?

Q12. In the last year, have you
had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

The Gallup Engagement Index slots people into one of three
categories:

• Engaged employees who work with
passion and feel a profound connection to their company. They drive innovation
and move the organization forward.

• Not-Engaged employees who are
essentially “checked out.” They may be in the building but they are
sleepwalking through their workday. They are putting in time, but going through
the motions with low enough energy or passion in their work.

• Actively Disengaged employees
who aren’t just unhappy at work; they’re busy acting out their unhappiness in
their relationships with their colleagues. These workers undermine what their
engaged co-workers accomplish every day through virtual sabotage. They would
rather be somewhere else, even if they can’t think of an alternative.

Results of the survey vary from country to country,
organisation to organisation, age, education and gender. The results have
ranged from 70% to 80% in disengaged employees over nearly a decade. Here are
the results from Gallup Employee last year. The Gallup Engagement Index in the US shows
that the current trends remained relatively stable throughout 2011:

A.Engaged = 29%

B.Not engaged = 52%

C.Actively disengaged = 19%

Summary

What you will notice is that the population of A (29%) is
probably carrying the remaining population of B & C (71%) on their backs. An obvious
conclusion is that MF Leaders need to focus on reducing the B & C
population ratio and converting significant populations into A-type Engaged
workers if the business is to grow and innovate.

1 comment:

Amir Heshmatpour is famous Managing Director at AFH Holding & Advisory.With your membership you can see Amir Heshmatpour's complete information, and discover who has been doing research about you on the web! Registered users can see what Amir Heshmatpour is up to.

Follow by Email

About Me

Chief Innovation Officer: Institute for the Study of Zombie Organizations, CIO Milamber Consulting, Mentor to Social Innovation Lab Kent (SILK), Author, featured in the WSJ, contributed to HBR, and is on several Advisory Boards. His “Knowledge Activist’s Handbook” has been cited as the “best management book within the last ten years”.
Head of Innovation Strategy, Technology Strategy Board (2008/9); As Pfizer’s Chief Learning Officer (2000-2005), influenced the Innovation Surge within Global R&D.
His recent innovation consulting includes financial services, regulatory organizations, manufacturing, biopharmaceuticals, foreign government national innovation development strategies, manufacturing and telecoms. He is the inventor of several fast innovation techniques, has recently been applying his Innovation Leadership Model with CEO mentoring groups and prototyping Open Innovation strategies based on collaborative alliances with the University of Greenwich Business School.
Victor is a Visiting Professor in Knowledge and Innovation Management to both Greenwich and OU Business Schools, and has served as a special forces reservist.